The Unsolved Murder of Penny Bell

Penny Bell, her husband Alistair and their two children lived in the upmarket village of Denham in Buckinghamshire. Penny was very successful in her career, she was a partner working for an employment agency that specialised in the catering industry. The family were quite affluent and lived a middle-class lifestyle. 

On the morning of June 6th 1991, Alistair, who worked as an estate agent, left for work as normal. He noticed that on this particular morning, Penny did not wave him off to work as she normally would. He assumed that it was because they had a lot of tradesmen working on the house, and she was just caught up in all the commotion that was going on inside. 

That same morning, at about 9.40 am, Penny, told one of the builders that she had an appointment at 9.50 am and was going out. She had not mentioned anything about the appointment to Alistair. Penny got in her powder blue Jaguar and drove off, telling builders that if they had any problems, to call her at the office. 

Penny was discovered at 12 pm that same day, she was found slumped over the steering wheel of her car in the car park of the Gurnell Swimming Pool. She had been stabbed around 50 times in the chest and arms by someone who was sitting in the front passenger seat. Police also say that the attacker carried on stabbing Penny when they left the vehicle via the open divers' side window. 

The police now tried to piece together Penny's last known movements. They discovered that she withdrew £8,500 in cash from her bank account on Monday, June 3rd 1991, but nobody knew what this money was for. The police believed that this money was with Penny when she died, but it was not found in the car. Penny's handbag and purse were still in the car, along with some wallpaper samples that were spread out over the centre console. It looked like Penny could have been showing the samples to the person who was in the car with her. Or, whoever was in the car with Penny, put the samples there on purpose to stage the scene. Penny had told the carpenter working at her house that morning, that she was going to get a second opinion on the colour, and that is why she had taken the paper samples with her.

At approximately 9.45 am, a witness came forwards to say that she was walking her dog in Black Park in Iver, near Penny's house when she saw a man in a brown or bronze-coloured car waiting in a lay-by on Fulmer Common Road. She said that a blue Jag pull up next to the car and the man got inside. Penny's powder blue Jag was quite unusual, so there is a strong possibility that this was Penny that the lady saw. The man was described as being about 5 foot 10, in his 40s, with a medium build and was wearing a light-coloured shirt and dark trousers. 

Penny's normal route to the office was down the A40, but a lorry driver saw a car that matched the description of Penny's Jag in Greenford just before 10.30 am. He noticed that the car was driving very slowly and had a male passenger in the front seat. The lorry driver said that the lady inside looked like she was trying to park the car, but the passenger kept correcting her steering, making her carry on down the road. As the lorry driver overtook the car, he noticed that the man had his hand on the steering wheel. He also noted that the man was wearing a gold chain on his right wrist. Several other witnesses said that they saw this same blue car with its hazard lights on driving very slowly, also stating that the car veered to the size of the road several times. Despite all these accounts, nobody really paid much attention and nobody stopped to see if the driver needed assistance. 

A number of witnesses said that they saw Penny's car parked in the Gurnell Swimming Pool car park. The car was strategically parked near a hedge so that the visibility into the front of the car was limited. A lady that was walking through the car park noticed that the window screen wipers were moving on the car, even though it was dry and sunny. She said that the hazard lights were also flashing. The lady said that she did not look inside the car. All these sightings, of the blue car in the car park, were less than an hour after Penny had left her home. 

Another witness that saw Penny's car said that they saw a dark-haired man in the passenger seat. The witness said that he saw her drive into the car park and looked at him and mouth the words, 'help me'. Although the witness ignored Penny's request and continued on his way. Police put together a photofit of the man that was seen in the car, but he was never found.

At 10.45 am, a witness saw a man leaving the Gurnell Swimming Pool car park on foot. He was described as being smartly dressed with no kit bag, so the witness assumed that he was not there to swim. He was described as having some disfiguration on one side of his face. Penny had been stabbed multiple times, but the witness did not notice any blood on this man's clothing.

Another witness saw a car speeding down Ruslip Road East, driving away from the swimming pool. The lady said that she pulled out in front of the car as she thought that she had enough time, but the car got very close as he was going so fast. She said that the male driver was flashing his lights and hooting at her to move. Initially, she did not let him pass, but she got scared and pulled over.

The police were stumped. They ruled out robbery as a motive, but they strongly believed that Penny knew her killer. 

Police did find some fingerprints in Penny's car. The fingertips were found to belong to a man called John Richmond. John was Penny and Alistair's former neighbour from when they lived in Harrow. John was arrested and questioned twice but was released without charge. 

Three years later, John Richmond asked the Sun Newspaper for £80,000, to reveal the truth about how Penny was murdered. The Sun led him on, and a reporter went to meet Mr Richmond several times. The reporter took a tape recorder and recorded their conversations. Richmond said that he and Penny had been having an affair, and he was due to meet her that morning. No action was taken, police believe that he was trying to make money from Penny's murder.

A £20,000 reward was offered, but nobody was caught. 

There was also speculation that her husband was having a homosexual affair. Penny knew that her husband was bisexual, as when the pair met, Alistair was in a relationship with another man. Police severely grilled Alistair over this, especially as he was the main beneficiary of her estate. However, he was completely eliminated. 

Penny kept a diary of her whereabouts, which has no meetings that could be unaccounted for. There were also no reports of her going missing from the office sporadically. 

Daughter Lauren left home when she was 19 at the request of her father, she has not spoken to him since. 

Theories

Penny was being blackmailed. Was there something that Penny or Alistair was hiding that someone threatened to expose? 

In a later interview, daughter Lauren said that she had an inkling of who killed her mother, but she did not name the person. 

Penny was a victim of the serial killer, Robert Napper. Napper was active in the area at the time of Penny's murder. 

As of September 2022, Penny's case remains unsolved. 

Sources and Further Reading

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oojaP8igpTE&t=2081s

https://www.vice.com/en/article/ev3nyw/the-inside-story-of-britains-most-notorious-cold-case-murder

Pinner Observer - Thursday 24 October 1991 https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002510/19911024/010/0002